Surge arrester and insulator electrical test program

A surger arrester and suspension insulator test program was implemented by the Anoka Electric Cooperative (AEC) in June of 1988 in order to isolate and remove from service any overhead surge arresters or suspension insulators that visually appear to be in good condition but are electrically defective and subject to potential failure. In this program, the arresters from suspension insulators that are removed from service due to line retirement or system modifications are tested for excessive leakage current and returned to service upon passing the test. A tabulation of outages directly attributed to insulator and arrester failures and the number of damaged suspension insulators found by routine line inspection and removed from service is given